Is it too much to ask?

Every other kid sees the wet paint and thinks, "I need to stay away from that." But MY children think, "Cool! Let's go play in it!" And it was oil based paint, of course. And while I was holding out hope on the way home that our Bob Ross kit contained some turpentine, of course it doesn't. And how in the HECK am I going to find the translation for turpentine anyway? (Last time I needed something like that for Elias' eczema, I ended up buying a cactus.)

We spent half an hour alternating cooking oil and soap and while their shirts are ruined, their hands are clean and hopefully, there is nothing too damaging pumping around in their blood streams because Lord knows, their little brains make enough bad decisions without it!

You can tell Elias has seen me shopping in China.

This morning, he made a necklace and told me that he was selling it for 2 yuan. I nodded but continued with breakfast and he said, "You better go ahead and buy it because this high quality won't last long." I found him the money and am wearing it now. The little business man.

Ezra calls it "bone and arrow."

Brad's still on second shift and I'm still kind of enjoying it. Zuri fell asleep last night easily but Ezra came in and woke him up needing to poop...Zuri refused to go back to sleep and he didn't sleep well all night. I think he really wanted to watch "Wives and Daughters."

It has been gorgeous this week and we've enjoyed it.

Elias' new thing is the iPod. I highly recommend it to any parent who needs their child to calm down because we get some DOWN time now with him! He walks around and moves his hands to the beat and sings with it or he'll just sit calmly and listen. He wants his own for his birthday...we think it's doable.

Yes, we've been busy. It's like a vacation around here and then, Brad goes to work and I'm so busy. Zuri is crawling all over the place, not giving me a second's notice. But this evening, he's been really good, playing all by himself (I say that as he reaches for my open water bottle--which he loves to play with). Elias and Ezra are being really good today and I hope they stay like that. :)

I've got a cute video of Zuri I'm going to upload but I can't until Brad gets home with the video camera.

Until next time!

Brad on second shift.

I've really enjoyed it this week, mostly because Brad's here during the day to help. Sure, he's not here at night but he's also not here to get them so excited that they don't want to go to bed...bedtime is a BREEZE around here without daddy. There's no crying, no needing to pee, no need for water or food, no talking, no tattling...we read a book and they just go to sleep.

But poor Elias doesn't get to see his daddy at all. So last night, Brad called Elias and told him to wake him up at 6:00 in the morning (if he woke up) and they would play together. Elias set his internal alarm and at six on the dot he came in and woke his daddy up. Isn't that sweet?

No ball this weekend, I wonder what we can get into. mmmmmm....

We've been busy.

Brad is working second shift these days so we've been enjoying our days together a bit. This morning, we woke up early and went to Starbuck's for breakfast and coffee after taking the two older ones to school and even got a chance to look at movies without having to worry about them running off. It was a nice morning.

He enjoys working this shift. He gets to play with Ezra for a few hours even though he completely misses Elias. Yesterday was a trying day for me but this evening was much easier.

We had a good weekend full of soccer (which Elias loves now), haircuts, piano lessons (new book for him!), eating out and playing with the kids.

I don't get a chance to write much because I'm pretty busy with Brad (as if he's another child, ha ha) but hopefully soon I will be able to get something productive done on here.

Next week is a holiday for Elias so it may be even more difficult.

Cheers!

All hands on deck!

We've got CRAWLING...and TALKING!!! (and what looks like an attempt to fly!)


Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books

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Weekend update.

We've been very busy this week and last weekend! I haven't posted, though, because I vowed that I would get all my photos backed up so I wouldn't lose them if something happened to my computer. I'm to March.

Saturday morning, we woke up early to go to the ball fields for soccer and baseball. I had packed everything the night before (even bought a new stroller for Zuri so he could take naps lying down) and all we had to do was stop and get money. Guess what? I left the freakin' card IN the ATM machine the day before. The card doesn't have my name on it nor does it have the number connected with the account and so they wouldn't give it back. I knew without a doubt that the one they were holding up was mine (apparently, this is a very common occurrence, she pulled another one out of the machine before finding mine in a file cabinet). I knew because mine was once stepped on and bent and it still holds the scar.

But alas, Brad had to go get a note from our bank that verified that card was, in fact, ours. Whole morning ruined.

So we ate an early lunch and then headed to the fields for baseball. Brad got into an argument with one of the coaches about whether Elias needed a T or not. It was "Where I'm from, we don't use a T after about four years old." and "Where I'm from, we use one all through high school." I'm trying to talk him out of it, but we may not be back for baseball. Of course, Elias didn't show off how well he can hit so he looked like he needed the T. He's a pretty good hitter, actually. That's kids for you. (And I'm still rolling my eyes. Brad's dad is right. His glasses and style of dress do not show exactly how athletic Brad is. I'm sure he surprises people and he probably will that dude one day. That is, if we go back.)

Saturday evening, we bought Brad an Ipod. I LOVE IT! I now understand what people mean when they write, "I love my Ipod." Brad, luckily, lets me use it during the day while he's working.

Sunday was a trip with Ezra's school. It was fun. We played games and I laughed so hard. They had games for adults...it's kind of like "Red Rover." Two groups line up facing each other and then call one player out. The other team sends a player out and then those two play tug of war. I won. I kicked the woman's bootay. It was kind of embarrassing but I was certainly was NOT going to end up being the loser. That was my mindset. It was like when my sister and I used to fight and I would end up the winner even though she was much older than me. Yeah, I went there...the other mother didn't stand a chance.





We also fished for gold fishes and/or coy. They gave us a net and a bucket and we rock hopped out in the pond. Brad actually caught one. They're so fast and they know the red bucket means "danger" and so they avoid it at all costs. The guy running it just gave us another one. I figure he must have a sibling or possibly two children of his own. Anyway, we now have two pet fish sitting on my kitchen table because Maggie has once, almost twice, successfully knocked it into the floor spilling the contents everywhere if I put it anywhere else. (And I think she won't survive if she somehow gets "lost" outside.)



It was a fun place, called literally "Future Farm Plaza World." I think there was some definite genetic engineering going on. The clover was freakin' gigantic and during one of the games, Elias went on a search for a four leaf clover. He came back with an eight leafed clover!


We had a good time, just walking around, riding rides and playing. I thought it was going to be cold and the kids had on way too many clothes. We all ended up getting sunburned even though the sun was nowhere to be seen. And ya know, I even had on sunscreen in my makeup so I think there was some kind of super u/v light there to help along the genetically engineered plants. (You know me, gotta have a conspiracy theory somewhere.)

Our weekends in pictures

I took pictures of our weekend because goodness knows that I talk about Mr. Pizza enough.

Mr. Pizza:
This is the most eclectic restaurant ever. We were eating Indian, Thai, Korean and American food, listening to Mexican music and watching Looney Toons--all in China. (Zuri is under those pillows near Brad. They help us create a bed for him whenever he goes to sleep. Nice folks!)


The Italian bakery: (It really does suck when you can't eat dairy!)


The movie store--a small corner of it. Is it sad to admit to the fact that we own all of those children's movies except for the Barbie ones?

Tuesday

Zuri is kind of crawling now. He reminds me of a little dog limping around. Before too long, he'll be into everything and I'll never get to post another blog again.

I've mentioned that he's been really grumpy all the time; I've decided I was starving him. Today for lunch, he ate 2 jars of apples, pumpkin and dates, lots of my rice, some of my cabbage, several bites of chicken, a couple of bites each of tofu, greens and apple. He still wasn't done but I was afraid he'd throw up. So after I fed him all that, he stopped crying when I'd just stand up (as he's been doing). Of course, maybe he is just so full that he can't move. I honestly would think that except he's been limping around here getting into things like the Legos and Ezra's army men. Time to baby proof, I guess.

Here are a few more pictures from this weekend.

Zuri is belly laughing at Brad playing peepie. Everyone who knows me will be surprised to know that that is my drawing of a bunny in the back gound.


Soccer and wrestling. Zuri turns into the Exorcist and watches them the whole time.




What happens when you have lazy children:

Watching the strawberries grow.

"I will sit outside all day and watch the strawberries. If it's bedtime, I will run upstairs and go to sleep. In the morning, I will go back outside and watch and see a plant. That's my plan."

A story with photos.

It's Tomb Sweeping Day in China and the cherry blossoms are blooming beautifully right now.


I decided to try to get a few pretty pictures:


Of course, the paparazzi shows up:


Ezra just can't help it:




Which leaves only Zuri to watch them play.


No worries, there's always SOMETHING to do.


The other two are off wrestling (that's a group of the male paparazzi):


I did manage to get an okay picture of the boys:


That's our day!

Although I must include this picture of Ezra, who found two sticks that were just perfect and began wandering off in the wrong direction making them talk to each other. We wondered how far he would get. He's finally walking back here. He's the teensy, tiny one in blue.

It's finger lickin' good

Hungry Baby:


Oh yes, it's greasy:


Wash it down with a bit of diet coke:


And now he's a happy baby:


This is going on in the background:

He NEVER has pants on!

Elias being inducted into a cult?

Crazies are everywhere. Even in China.

I rode the bus with Elias to his school yesterday and this little girl who sits in front of him started saying the absolute weirdest things to him. Elias was getting embarrassed because of it. I was kind of getting afraid for him. She apparently thought I couldn't hear her and she kept saying, "Don't tell your Mom, okay, Elias?" I know it freaked me out and I think I've purposefully blocked out what all she was telling him. The main gist was that they were going to go to her house and learn about the Bible but tell everyone it was for a birthday party.

Now, why would you need to lie about going to learn about the Bible? Well, because the stuff she was saying was scary.

Cult-like.

Weird.

She kept talking about reading the scripture and talking to prophets.

She also said that girls shouldn't shake their "bumbums" and if they do, that she and Elias need to go tell their parents. Then she went on to say that women must stay at home with the children and are not allowed to work. Something about Bob the Builder says so. Yes, a very confused little girl.

(I was very proud when Elias spoke up, "Yes women DO work." The only time he did speak up though. After a while, he leaned over and hid his head in his lap.)

And then she started talking about the stinky boy sitting next to her and how bad he smelled. She said it several times and I really was starting to get embarrassed for the little boy and I pretended like she was talking about Zuri. "No, I'm not talking about the baby. This.boy.right.here. (pointing with each word) stinks."

I'm not making this up!

I know her mother and father fairly well and they are definitely NOT like that. Gads, I hope not. I think she is extremely confused and needs a good talking to.

I told Elias as soon as we got off the bus that some people are weird and that as he grows up, he'll learn which ones he should listen to and which ones he shouldn't listen to. I hope he got my underlying message.

What scares me the most, actually, is he came home from school one day last week and was asking me questions about God. I asked him why he was suddenly so interested and he wouldn't tell me. Has this little girl (she usually sits beside him) been bombarding him with her crazy beliefs?

We're always extremely open and honest with Elias when it comes to our beliefs and other people's beliefs. He believes in the God. When his teacher (who was Buddhist) started trying to teach him about Christianity (and how "Jesus created the world") last year, we immediately sent off for a children's book with Bible stories so he would get it right.

But this little girl is just way too much.

It's always something with motherhood, isn't it? Will it ever get easy?
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Zuri's apple picture (since the other two boys and Brad also have one):


Zoobo is asleep. He was sitting on his bum this morning and turned around a complete 180 degrees.

Visited Elias' school

I can now officially say I've eaten "duck kidney." You'd think after being here for over three years, that I wouldn't make this mistake but I did. I asked her if it was meat and she said yes so I ate it and then I realized it wasn't muscle. Note to self: All the times you've asked if it's meat and they've said yes, doesn't necessarily mean you were eating what is considered "meat" in English.

It tasted fine until after you swallowed it.

So I made Ezra taste it.

It's been a pretty laid back day. Zuri hasn't wanted to nap until now (5:00pm) but he's been a good boy.

I went to Elias' school (with Zuri) this morning to watch him present his "Lego box." They are doing a unit on materials and they had to create something with materials. I thought he and his partner were being very creative and thought it was appropriate since Elias loves Legos. That is, until I walked around and saw ALL the boys created Lego boxes. Truth be told, Elias' and his partner's WAS the best. In fact, it was the only one that would hold Legos in a sensible manner. But they also only made one thing whereas the other kids made several different ones and then tested which one was the best.

I asked his teacher about this and she said she was excited at first because Elias had actually created a wonderful Christmas tree ornament but then he gave in to peer pressure and did a Lego box. So it wasn't even his idea.

Whatcha gonna do?